The Graveyard of Peace
by kartoonfreek
Summary: Kimiko has been living with the guilt of what happened to her mother for twelve years. When Raimundo notices that she's been depressed, he tries to help her. Can he? Read and find out!


Author's Note: I know I should be working on my other stories, but I have been having major writer's block, so I decided that in order to get my creative flow working again I would make a short story to try and boost it back up again. This is kind of a little one-shot or whateva it's called, and it's my version of what happened to Kimiko's mom. It's kind of like the sequel to my story The Storm of Serenity. And I made it so that Kimiko was born in 1997. So enjoy! Oh, and I do not own Xiaolin Showdown, though that would be cool!

The Graveyard of Peace

Twelve years. It had been twelve years since that dreadful day. Twelve years since that horrible phone call. Twelve years. She hated thinking about it. She usually never did, but today was the day since she, Kimiko Tohomiko, lost her peace. Sure she meditated, but that never solved what haunted her for twelve years. 'And it was all my fault.' she thought as she tried to concentrate on beating Raimundo in training.

She tried throwing some fire-balls. But because of her lack of concentration, she missed and it hit one of the nearby trees. Omi used his water element to put it out and went back to his training. Raimundo used his element to try and knock Kimiko over. He expected her to get out of the way, but instead she just looked over at the tree she burnt. 'It was all my fault.' She thought. She tried to hold back tears.

Raimundo, noticing that she just stood there, and remembering the blow he sent to her shouted, "Kim! Look out!"

She turned to him but the gust of wind knocked her off her feet sending her ten feet back. Raimundo ran to her side. "Ow." She replied as she sat up her hand on her head.

"Sorry Kim," Raimundo said as he knelt down beside her. "I guess I kinda-" he noticed that Kimiko had tears in her eyes. "What, what's wrong?" he asked his voice filled with worry.

She quickly wiped her eyes and replied, "Nothing, I- I'm fine." She stood up, "I, I just need to be alone for a while." She turned and walked to her 'room'.

Raimundo stood up and watched her leave. He felt a sudden urge to go and give her a hug to try and comfort her in her depressing state. But with Clay and Omi there it would be, kind of awkward. 'What's wrong with her?' he asked himself as he turned and went to go train with the Omi and Clay.

…..

When Kimiko entered her room and plopped down on her mat letting her tears soak her pillow. 'Why did she have to leave?' she asked herself. 'I should've been the one, I should be the one that isn't here!' she mentally kicked herself. She could still here the screams of the people that crowded around the limp body of someone she cherished… someone she loved… someone who sang to her at night when she was scared… someone who could understand her… someone who was part of her…

Her mother.

She could hardly remember her, she was so young when Kimiko lost her, and lost her peace. She could still see her mom lying on the ground. Lifeless. 'Why did she have to go and take that bullet for me?' the Dragon of Fire asked. She got up from her pillow that was now covered in tears. She wiped her tears from her cheeks. She couldn't take it anymore. She couldn't live with that guilt that came at this time every year.

It was getting late and she figured that the others would be looking for her for dinner. So she got up with her head looking down at her feet and started walking out of her 'room'. She was only a few steps out of her room when she bumped into something, or someone. She looked up and saw that she was face to face, er… face to chest with a certain sun-kissed Brazilian.

"Um.. Kim?" he asked as she looked up to meet his face, he could see the dried tears that lay on her porcelain cheeks. "Are you okay?"

She looked away quickly and replied, "Yeah, I- I just-" her voice trailed off as it worked into sobs. Raimundo, a little bit shocked by her sudden sobs that soon turned into crying, put his arms around her back and pulled her close to try and comfort her. Letting him do so, Kimiko laid her head into his chest and began to cry even harder.

"Kimiko? Are you sure you're okay?" he asked looking down at the Japanese girl who had now soaked his shirt in tears, not that he cared.

She looked up at him. He had to admit that she looked kind of cute with her eyes full of tears. 'What am I saying?' he asked himself, 'She's crying over something and I have the nerve to say that she looks cute like this?' he shook that thought away and turned his focus back to the girl who was crying her eyes out.

"I'm sorry, Rai. I guess it's been a very stressful day." She admitted pulling away from his chest and looking down. "I guess you came to say that dinner was ready?" she asked him not looking up at him.

"Yeah." He stated. What was he supposed to do now? He just had an awkward episode with one of his best friends. And yet, he wanted to know desperately what made her cry, but he knew that he'd be asking for too much information.

He turned to walk away when she grabbed his arm and asked, "Rai?" he turned back to look at her. "Promise that you won't tell anyone. A- about what just happened?" she asked holding back tears.

He grinned, "All right." He said.

Kimiko smiled back, "Thanks." She said letting go of his arm and walking with him to the kitchen.

…..

That night, Kimiko couldn't sleep. She tried so hard to forget what happened that day. Thinking about her mom, that episode with Rai. 'Rai,' she thought, 'he always was there for me…. like she was. It's time for me to apologize!' She got up from her mat, and began walking to the vault.

Raimundo couldn't sleep either. He kept thinking about how upset Kimiko was. 'Why was she so upset?' he asked himself. He heard some noise coming from Kim's room right next door. He got up and looked out his 'door'. He saw Kimiko walking out of her room and outside. 'Now what could she be doing?' he asked. He got his jacket that was by his 'bed' and headed out, making sure that he wasn't seen.

Kimiko tapped the bells to the vault. When it opened she walked gracefully down the steps until she reached the one Wu she needed.

Raimundo followed in the shadows and went down the steps. But when he saw Kim he took a few steps back up the stairs so as not to be seen. He saw her take out a golden object shaped like, 'The Golden Tiger Claws!' he thought. She took the claws and made a portal in mid air. When she disappeared through, he quickly ducked in to the portal.

After a while of spinning and trying not to throw up, Raimundo landed in a place that had a bunch of….. graves? He looked around trying to figure out where he was. He looked at a sign that had the words 'Tokyo Cemetery' written on it. (A/N: So original right?) He looked around some more and saw Kimiko at one of the graves sitting down in front of it. He silently walked over and looked over her shoulder.

Kimiko could feel someone's presence and figured it was….

"So?" she asked, "Why did you follow me?" she stood up and turned around to, once again, come face to chest with him. Trying so desperately to hide a blush, she looked up at him only to see that he was looking at her with sympathy in his emerald green eyes.

After what seemed like forever, Raimundo embraced Kimiko in a hug. "I'm sorry Kim," he whispered in her ear. "I didn't know."

A little surprised by his actions, she hugged him back and said, "It's okay,"

"No it's not." He pulled her away with his hands on her shoulders and her looking up at him, he looked over at the grave that read Kasuga Tohomiko, 1968-2000, A Great Person, A Great Mom. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Kimiko looked down and replied quietly, "I- I didn't want to tell because," she sighed trying to hold back her tears, "It was all my fault." She said the tears escaping her eyes and streaming down her face.

Raimundo took one hand off her shoulder and wiped away a tear. "What do you mean it was your fault?"

Kimiko looked up at him only to turn away and say, "We, we were at a bank." She began, "Mom and I needed some money so we could go to the store, I was only three, so I didn't know any better. There was man who wanted money, you know, the whole 'this is a stick up' thing. And when he told everyone to get stay to the ground," she began sobbing a little bit and fell to the ground with her hands covering her face. Raimundo knelt down beside her putting a hand on her back softly.

"He pulled out a gun and threatened me," she said letting her hands drop to her lap. "When I didn't move he- mom pushed me out of the way- I heard a gunshot, then I heard a bunch of people screaming, the sirens. Then I looked over at mom and she was just laying there." She said looking up at Raimundo. "She shouldn't have done that. I should be the one who was shot, not her."

Raimundo pulled her into a hug and said, "But Kim, she was trying to protect you."

"I know that, but-" Raimundo cut her off.

"Instead of thinking about the things you've lost Kim, try thinking about the things you've gained." She looked up at him. "Like, you've gained great friends."

"A great home?" she suggested.

"Yeah," he said. "I know it must hurt Kim, but your mom knows that you're sorry for not getting out of the way, but she and you know that she didn't want anything to happen to you. So, what I'm trying to say Kim is, that the past is the past, it can't be changed. But what you can do is make the future better." He smiled down at her.

She took a while to think about this, but she finally smiled and said, "Thanks Rai, I needed someone to say something like that." She put her arms around his neck and hugged him tight. He returned the hug.

Raimundo broke away from the hug, and gave her, to her and his surprise, a lovely kiss on the cheek. Kimiko returned the favor, but not in the way he expected. She gave him a light kiss, on the lips. She broke away and saw that Raimundo had turned red, she too had a light shade of pink on her cheeks.

Since it was already night time, it started getting cold. So Kimiko started shivering slightly. Raimundo noticed this and took off his jacket and put it around her shoulders. Once he did that, Kimiko turned to face her mom's grave, and he put his arms around her waist. "Remember Kim," he said, "I'll always be here if you need me."

She smiled and said, "I know, and I thank you." And for the first time in twelve years, Kimiko finally found her peace.

But little did they know, that a lady with a white dress, and herself was ghostly white, with Raven black hair, and sapphire blue eyes, was standing a few yards behind them. "That's my girl." She said before she disappeared into thin air.

Author's note: Ok, so that was it! … Please review! I'm thinking about making more little one-shots, or whateva it's called, like this and my other story, The Storm of Serenity. So hope you enjoyed it! If I made any mistakes in spelling please let me know!


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